MusicCast - AVR zone 2 assignable?

[psysfaction]

Hi there A&V community.

I'm planing to set-up a new house with A&V gear and since budget is a bit tight I'm looking for a cost effective way of creating a good Multiroom Audio System.

I was quite excited when I saw that Yamaha includes MusicCast into their AVR.
Usually I use Denon for my set-ups but for some reason they do not include their solution Heos in their AVR which I find is a missed opportunity.

I've read various reviews and forum posts about MusicCast but with one key thing I can not find an answer.

If I have an 7.1 AVR with two zones like the RX-679 can I assigned each zone individually in the MusicCast app so that it looks like two individual devices?

I would really help if someone could answer this questions since it is one of the deciding factors for me when deciding if I should go with Yamaha for my next set-up.

Thanks

 

[highfigh]

Hi there A&V community.

I'm planing to set-up a new house with A&V gear and since budget is a bit tight I'm looking for a cost effective way of creating a good Multiroom Audio System.

I was quite excited when I saw that Yamaha includes MusicCast into their AVR.
Usually I use Denon for my set-ups but for some reason they do not include their solution Heos in their AVR which I find is a missed opportunity.

I've read various reviews and forum posts about MusicCast but with one key thing I can not find an answer.

If I have an 7.1 AVR with two zones like the RX-679 can I assigned each zone individually in the MusicCast app so that it looks like two individual devices?

I would really help if someone could answer this questions since it is one of the deciding factors for me when deciding if I should go with Yamaha for my next set-up.

Thanks

Look at the upcoming Denon models.

Download the app and play with the Demo mode and go to their site for the most in-depth info. It's too bad you didn't ask before the middle of last week- I could have asked the trainer how well this works and we could have demo'd it in this way.

 

[psysfaction]

Look at the upcoming Denon models.

Download the app and play with the Demo mode and go to their site for the most in-depth info. It's too bad you didn't ask before the middle of last week- I could have asked the trainer how well this works and we could have demo'd it in this way.

I tired the demo mode from MusicCast but I can not see if I can have two zones running of the same AVR. Also I did not see any specified info about Zone 2 of AVR and how they will work with MusicCast.
If you look at Airplay and UPNP (with Denon AVR) it usually mostly works for the first zone and you would then manually have to switch to Zone 2 which is unintuitive and user unfriendly

The Problem with Denon is that I work in Indonesia where Denon releases their models one year late.
So here the latest models are the 200 series (x1200, x2200 and so on) and they do not sell any heos speakers here because they think their is no market in Indonesia (a country with 250 million people)

 

[highfigh]

I tired the demo mode from MusicCast but I can not see if I can have two zones running of the same AVR. Also I did not see any specified info about Zone 2 of AVR and how they will work with MusicCast.
If you look at Airplay and UPNP (with Denon AVR) it usually mostly works for the first zone and you would then manually have to switch to Zone 2 which is unintuitive and user unfriendly

The Problem with Denon is that I work in Indonesia where Denon releases their models one year late.
So here the latest models are the 200 series (x1200, x2200 and so on) and they do not sell any heos speakers here because they think their is no market in Indonesia (a country with 250 million people)

IIRC, Airplay on a Yamaha is activated in Zone 1 before Zone 2, then Zone 1 can be changed to something else, so it's not particularly intuitive or user-friendly, IMO. Have you looked at the Denon app? That treats Zone 2 as a separate entity. You can also operate both brands using a computer- I have done that a lot with Denon AVRs and it works well.

 

[psysfaction]

Thank you for your reply highfigh.

I did try the Denon control app but it is very counter intuitive and not girlfriend friendly plus it does not work nicely when you have more then one AVR in the house.

In my next set-up I would like to use 3 AVR in different rooms and have a total of 6 audio zones.
The MusicCAst app from Yamaha seems very straight forward I just do not know if I can address two Zones per AVR within the MusicCast app.

Anyone here has a new Yamaha AVR with two zones who could test the app to see if he can assign two individual zones in the app?

 

[Minkey]

I have a rxv 683. 2 pairs of speakers wired to 'zone 1' and (1) pair of outdoor speakers wired to 'Zone 2'. Via the Musiccast app i can turn on/off each zone seperately. Only one music source, Zone 1 and Zone 2 can only play the same music.